By Mike Davenport, EAA 89102, Langley, British Columbia
As winter settles in here on the “wet coast,” we currently have much more time to indulge in telling stories of our flying experiences. What aviation enthusiast hasn’t indulged in that pastime? It’s a great way to spend a rainy Saturday morning in the airport coffee shop telling stories, some of which might even be true.
There is usually a lot of talk about airplanes that one has flown and more about the ones we’d like to and in some cases, the ones we wish we hadn’t.
In my case, I’m of an age when the F-86 Sabre was the primary fighter of many countries, including Canada. I well remember air shows featuring solo F-86 demos and even more special — the Golden Hawks formation team.
I’ve never even sat in one but I have been up close to some that were being used as drones, this in the ‘80s in Mohave, California. A fellow Canadian, Bob Laidlaw bought a bunch of retired RCAF CF-86’s to be flown as target drones but also he maintained one that was his personal ride, appropriately registered as N86FS, the FS for Flight Systems Inc., Bob’s company. The dream of flying one remains just that to this day. But I do have a photo of that airplane signed by Bob and hanging in a place of honour in my den as I type this.
I did try to fly a S.E.5a WWI replica once. That didn’t go well as I wasn’t (and still am not) tall enough to reach the rudder pedals. For once I did the smart thing and aborted the takeoff while there was still room to stop inside the boundary fence.
I was a lot more successful flying a WWII trainer, the Fleet Finch. That one has a special place in my memories as I try to keep the stories somewhere near the facts.
What inspired this particular line of thought was a picture that fell out of a binder this week of me sitting in the left seat of Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose. Hey if you are going to dream, go big. There I am even wearing Howard’s fedora but clearly “hangar flying” as the hangar doors are plainly visible through the windshield. The aircraft built in 1947 flew only once in November of that year. Today it is on display in the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon.
Wearing yet another hat has me at the controls of another large airplane, this time a Boeing 747-200, albeit a simulator. This time I actually got an entry in my logbook for two hours of sim time. Great fun doing different approaches into YVR courtesy of Canadian Airlines.
Air Canada also got to factor into my hangar flying with some dual in one of their simulators and while this one has no logbook entry, it still rates high as a coffee shop tale. The same instructor later gave me an hour’s dual in a Staggerwing.
Those are just a few that come to mind that I’m happy to share with any with the patience and fortitude to listen and I’m willing to bet that you might have some of your own.